Abstract
Innovative work behaviours of employees have been demonstrated to positively affect organisational innovativeness, and organisations are increasingly relying on individual employee innovation to meet market and environmental demands, and to grow and survive. No studies have been done within the South African context to understand the relationship between personality and IWB. This study thus investigated IWB and personality in the South African context by determining the applicability of IWB measures in the South African context and the relationship between innovative work behaviour and the respective factors of the South African Personality Inventory (SAPI). A cross-sectional quantitative research method was incorporated through the distribution of an online questionnaire and paper-based version of the SAPI, the Janssen IWB scale, and Krause’s Idea Generation and Idea Implementation scales to South Africans who had at least two years’ working experience (N = 265). Openness was observed to significantly positively predict IWB whilst Neuroticism was found to be a significant negative predictor, as measured by the Janssen IWB scale and Krause’s Idea Generation and Idea Implementation scales. The other four SAPI factors, namely Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Positive Social-Relational and Negative Social-Relational, were not found to significantly predict IWB, or only significantly predicted a single stage.
Keywords: innovative work behaviour; SAPI; personality; South Africa